First CS pop'n music release with full-fledged menus that tie in to its arcade game's counterpart, as opposed to just a little box at the title screen that allows you to switch to various modes or options.

First CS pop'n music with preview music for songs.

First CS pop'n music where speed mods and Anime/TV license characters don't need to be unlocked.

Only CS pop'n music title since pop'n music 8 CS to bring over all the new hidden arcade songs from the previous pop'n music game over (not counting licenses and URA songs).

Unlocks Through Other Games

HARD COUNTRY and SKA are unlocked if you have GuitarFreaks V / DrumMania V CS data on your PlayStation2 memory card; if you don't, you have to enter a code or reach the certain condition to play them. The same applies to PUNKISH GIRL; you must have DanceDanceRevolution STRIKE data on your memory card for it to be unlocked.If you are looking for a save for those games, look over at GameFAQs.

Play 脱皮 ～Knock Out Regrets～ and get the number 105 in the last three digits of sum of GREAT, GOOD and stage score.Enter the code 4466373728 in either first or second Stage.Enter the Temporary Unlock Codes below.

Mini Games

In pop'n music 12 いろは CS, two of the songs must be unlocked through mini-games, both of which use the controller to play.

Yima Mini-game

You, the Yima at the bottom, have a limited time-frame to match the pose of the Yima above you. Yima will pose in one of five poses: you must press the color at the bottom of the screen that represents this pose. If you screw up or fail to hit it in time, you lose and have to restart all over again. If you choose to play this in 2-player mode, the red button will not be used. Complete this game 100% to unlock BEYOND THE EARTH.

Bike Mini-game

Shishamo the cat (from the pop'n music 8 song チェイス！チェイス！チェイス！) and his owner Satou-san notice a sale on cat food, and race to the store to get it across 3 different levels: a road, a jungle, and outer space. Press the blue buttons to speed up, the red button to jump over obstacles, and either yellow button to break.

You start out with three lives. If you hit an obstacle, whether from above or on the ground, the cat will fly out of the basket. Right before he touches the ground he will be saved by one of three pop'n music characters: Shinobian (シノビアン赤), YOSHIO, and Shinobian-ko (シノビアンコ), in that order. If you use up all three lives and you hit another obstacle, you lose automatically. You also lose if you fail to complete any of the three levels in time. In either case, you have to restart from the first level all over again. However, if you manage to break successfully and catch your cat in the bicycle's basket, you will not lose a life. Complete all three levels to unlock チェイス！チェイス！チェイス！.

Unlocking Information

pop'n music 12's unlocking systems involves Shinobian, first seen in pop'n music 8 (the song ニンジャヒーロー⚡シノビアン even plays in the background). The unlock system is very simple: play through any mode in the arcade, and you will rank up Ninja Points. Shinobian will try to throw his shriuken on one of several scrolls under a small time limit. All you have to do is simply press the Red button at the time one of the 4 scrolls passes by in the center of the screen, each representing a different season: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Once you hit a scroll, you'll see a picture slowly unroll from the scroll. If it unrolls all the way, you unlock that song. Be careful not to hit a brown scroll: you get absolutely nothing if you do.

About halfway through Shinobian will be replaced by Shinobianko, the female ninja from Ninja Heroine via a scroll. The music will also change to that of her theme. The unlocking system doesn't change when you get her.

Once you fully complete the spring, summer, fall, and winter scrolls, one final, black scroll will pop up: hit that and fully unravel it to unlock HELL 12. You'll also unlock all the EXs for the songs new to Iroha.

Another alternative to unlock all the songs is to turn off the unlock system through arcade mode. Note that time passes by ONLY in arcade mode and only when playing songs: menus, credits, result screens, etc. do not to your time.

5 hours

Hidden AC songs

6 hours

Hidden CS songs

6.5 hours

Expert courses

7 hours

ee'MALL songs

Note that HARD COUNTRY, SKA, and PUNKISH GIRL CANNOT be unlocked over time.

MARATHON MODE

MARATHON MODE is unlocked after unlocking everything through pop'n Hiden Ninpouchou (ポップン秘伝忍法帖), and all pop'n request songs. Minigames do not have to be cleared.

Players are given 50 lives (shown as hearts, instead of a GROOVE GAUGE), which each life will deplete for every BAD judgement without recovery during songs and the player will fail the current playthrough if all lives are depleted, similar to the EXPERT MODE GROOVE GAUGE. Unlike EXPERT MODE, lives are completely replenished only after every checkpoint, which occurs after every set number of songs, depending on the difficulty (every 6 songs for 5 BUTTON/9 BUTTON and every 3 songs for HYPER/EX). The player's progress is automatically saved at each checkpoint and can be resumed at any time, even after failing, until overwritten by a new MARATHON MODE playthrough, a new checkpoint of the current playthrough, or by clearing the current playthrough.

FEVER is achieved with a current combo count (can carry over between songs) of 100 or more.

Clearing MARATHON MODE does not unlock any new songs.

Temporary Unlock Codes

Codes can be entered on the Press Start screen and have to be entered every time you play. Played songs will not be saved. The buttons correspond to the buttons on the pop'n music controller from left to right.

In the case of using an analog controller: L2, L1, Left, Up, Right, Triangle, Circle, R1, R2. You must hold Select while entering codes on an analog controller.